2025 – my life. my words.

Hey there!

We started 2025 in California.

It feels good to be back. I wish it were affordable to live here, as does the whole family.

We spent the day going to various BTTF sites. We went to the Twin Pines Mall, Marty’s House, and the Tunnel from BTTF, where Biff tried to run over Marty. Luca liked going to all these places. The other kids did not remember going, so they enjoyed it too.

Since we made the trip to Griffith Park anyway, we figured, let’s check it out. And the view didn’t disappoint (but it never does).

The next day, we again parked offsite, took the subway to the Universal City stop, and then went to the park. This time, we noticed a sign outside that said the park was sold out for the day.

Luckily, we had annual passes. We went to the turnstiles and they told us, ‘Uh, this is a blackout day for you.’ After talking with guest services, we had to change our pass type because Costco’s passes are less than the least expensive pass you can buy anywhere.

A bit annoying. My parents offered to pay for the upgrade since the kids were all in shambles. Ara was tearing up, Elijah was trying to put on a happy face, and Luca wanted to get going.

Ironically, we skipped the Harry Potter land the first day we were in (as we anticipated doing it on the 2nd day), so if we didn’t upgrade, we wouldn’t have seen it. What makes it more interesting is that we had an annual pass when they opened the Harry Potter land. They had a preview day on one of our last days we could go, but we didn’t see it quickly enough, and the spots were taken.

Moving on! We got to visit Hogwarts. It is a fun part of the park – we also took the kids’ swimming gear because they BEGGED to get wet.